


The Dumpster Boys

by multifandomships_somanyships



Series: The dumpster boys [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes Has PTSD, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hydra (Marvel), M/M, SHIELD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-10-20 05:55:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 5,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17616770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/multifandomships_somanyships/pseuds/multifandomships_somanyships
Summary: Bucky is the new kid from Russia that no one knows anything about. Steve is the one guy that everyone likes to beat up. One day Steve's bullies thought that it would be fun to throw him in the dumpster behind the school after they beat him up, but what happens when Bucky sees this and jumps in after him?





	1. Chapter 1

School was always just something that I needed to get through. There was no point in trying to make friends, just to go in, survive the day, and get out. I tried to make friends once and it didn’t really go well so I didn’t try again.  
Something that I learned quickly was the less that I talked to people, the less I got beat up. If I stayed in the shadows people wouldn’t see me so they wouldn’t pick on me. Hiding never really worked, it helped, but they always found me.  
There were two main groups that basically ruled the school. One was called SHIELD and the other HYDRA. The guys from HYDRA were always finding me and beating me up. I tried to ask some of the SHIELD kids for help, but they didn’t give a shit, they hated me too. I just tried to keep my head down and make it through the day.

It was lunch and I was hiding in the science lab hoping that the HYDRA thugs wouldn’t find me. But they did. One of them dragged me behind the school by my shirt while the others followed.  
Once they made sure that no one around they started kicking and punching me, shouting insults at me. It hurt like hell, but I knew better than to scream, that would only make things worse. So I just stood there while they beat me up.  
By the time they were don’t with me I was covered in blood and bruises, slumped against the brick wall of the school, clutching a cut on my arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding.  
Instead of just leaving me like they usually did, they decided that it would be fun to throw me in the dumpster. Thankfully it was empty, but it still smelled like trash.   
“Have fun in there, dumpster boy.” They closed the lid and walked away.

I curled up in the corner with me head between my knees, trying not to cry. Being thrown in the dumpster was unusual but it wasn’t as cruel as some of the other punishments I’ve faced. It was just another thing that I had to get through.   
I was considering just skipping the rest of my classes when I heard a large thud and felt someone land in the dumpster. I looked up to see a boy about as tall as me with shoulder length messy brown hair and blue-green eyes. He was dressed in all back and had a black leather glove on his left hand.   
“I’m James Buchanan Barnes, but you can call be Bucky.” He held out his hand for me to shake. “And you are?”  
“Steve Rogers, nice to meet you.” I returned his hand shake but winced when the wound on my arm started to sting from being moved. “What did you do to end up in the dumpster?”  
“Nothing,” he replied, “I saw you get thrown in here, so I thought I would join you.”  
“No offence, but the dumpster behind the school isn’t the best place to meet new people.”  
“But it is the most interesting,” He said with a smirk.   
“I guess it is,” I laughed.  
I looked up at him and saw genuine kindness in his eyes as he spoke to me. It was something new. Most people hated me, thought I was just a weak little kid, I could beat them up easily if I wanted to, but then I would get noticed and that was the last thing that I wanted. It was nice to meet someone who saw me as a person instead of a punching bag.   
“You new here?” I asked  
“Yeah, just transferred from a school in Russia.”  
“Russia!? That seems a bit far, especially for the middle of the year.”  
“Probably, but life will be life and sometimes you have to move to New York from Russia in the middle of the year.” He said this with a happy voice and a smile but there was something dark in his eyes and he unconsciously reached for his left hand.  
“Life will be life.” I repeated, we were in dumpster after all.  
We spent the rest of the day sitting in the dumpster and talking, neither of us wanted to go back to class so we just stayed there. We talked about random stuff and got to know each other, but I was thankful that he didn’t bring up why I was in the dumpster, so I didn’t mention his hand, those were things that we would talk about later. But now it was just getting to know each other. I was glad to have a friend and it seemed he was too.   
“Let’s make it a club,” said Bucky, suddenly changing the subject from favorite movies, “we could be the dumpster boys.”  
“The dumpster boys, really Bucky?”  
“C’mon Steve, its great and you know it.”  
“Fine we’re the dumpster boys,” we shook hands, both smiling, “It’s official now.”  
The final bell rang and we both climbed out of the dumpster, said our goodbyes, and went home.


	2. An Actual Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky talks to Nat about his new school

It took until I got home for the realization to sink in that I had actually made a friend. I kind of expected everyone to hate me, but I guess none of them knew who I was so they would have no reason to. Hopefully. Anyways, it was only a matter of time before I found out if my only friend here thought I was a freak or not. 

I was halfway through my physics homework when I heard my phone buzz. It was a text from Natasha. It only took one day in America for her to start interrogating me. She was asking about my new school. 

‘Well I already have homework, so that is fun.’

‘I meant did you make any friends’ She responded surprisingly quickly, but then again it was Natasha so she probably had it already typed out.

‘I made one, his name is Steve. We met in a dumpster, he was thrown in and I jumped in after him’

‘I don’t have the energy to care about you were jumping in a dumpster. So is he nice, and does he know about, you know, everything?’ This response took a lot longer than the other one, as if Nat couldn’t decide if she should bring it up or not.

‘Yes, he’s nice and no he doesn’t know about anything, not even the arm, I wore long sleeves and a glove to hide it, we didn’t talk about anything too personal. If he knew he probably wouldn’t have wanted to be friends with me.’ I was sort of starting out on a downward spiral, but I knew that it was true. 

‘Hey, that’s not true, I’m still your friend’

‘Okay, but everyone else hates me.’

‘I wouldn’t say that’ She tried to make me feel better but we both knew that what I said was true.

‘If you don’t believe me you could talk to literally anyone else at our school, or the entire Russian government. They were the ones who did this to me after all.’

‘Maybe you have a point, but Steve could be different’ I really hoped that he was but people were usually afraid of me and he probably would be too. 

‘You know, I think transferring from a school in Russia to one in the New York in the middle of the year is weird enough, but having a metal arm and PTSD to go along with it is a bit worse. I got tortured enough in Russia and I would prefer that that didn’t happen here.’

Natasha didn’t answer for a few minutes, probably unsure of what to say after my mini rant, but when she did it was with some no too helpful advice. ‘Just get to know him, maybe he will surprise you. Well I have to go, have fun in America. Goodnight Buck’

‘Goodnight Nat.’

After that I finished my homework and spent the rest of the evening wondering if Natasha was right, maybe Steve wouldn’t hate me for who I really was.


	3. The Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky tells Steve about his arm.

Bucky and I spent the next few weeks meeting in the dumpster, that was somehow always empty, during lunch. Most times we talked about how our day or weekend went, usually laughing and having fun, but some days, when nothing seemed to be going right I could just cry and know that someone would be there to comfort me and Bucky knew that he could cry too, and that I would be there for him. It was nice having someone to be there for me when no one else was, especially someone who didn’t feel the need to ask questions.

“Hey Steve,” Bucky said nervously, breaking the comfortable silence that occupied many moments of our time in the dumpster, “can I tell you something?”  
“Sure.”  
“Also could you not tell anyone else, I really don’t want anyone to find out, but I feel like I can trust you with this so I hope that I’m right about that,” The last part he said more to himself than me, as if trying to reassure himself that he was making the right decision.  
“Don’t worry, you can trust me with anything,” There was no one that I could tell anything to but Bucky and even if there was, there was no way I was going to hurt my friend like that.  
“O-okay,” Bucky said.  
He was shaking, so I put my hand on his shoulder to comfort him but he shook it off, “I’m fine, I can do this.”  
“You don’t have to.”  
“Yes I do.”

Bucky took a deep breath and reached towards his left arm, it was the arm that he always cradled when he was crying, the one that I knew never to ask about and slowly pulled on each of the fingers of his glove that never left his hand, loosening it. He quickly pulled the glove off and held his hand out to me. Its was made of metal. Smooth, shiny silver metal, with multiple thin interlocking plates making it possible for the hand to move like a normal hand would. I just sat there and stared in amazement, not quite believing what I was seeing. But before I could say anything he began to take off the jacket that he also always wore, revealing that his whole arm was metal. He then moved it in a way that made all of the plates readjust, each making a small clicking noise as it moved.

I reached out to touch the arm, but Bucky flinched away so I put my hand back down.  
“I’m sorry, I never should have done this, you probably hate me now, I’m sorry,” He said looking down at his arm in shame.  
“No, no. Don’t be sorry, I don’t hate you.”  
“Wait, you don’t think I’m a freak,” He looked up at me now and I saw tears streaming down his face.  
“Of course I don’t think you’re a freak, I would never think that.”  
“Thank you, thank you for not thinking I’m a freak, thank you for not hating me or trying to stick things in my arm, or trying to rip it off, or, or” Bucky just broke down and started sobbing, it was obviously a difficult thing for him to talk about.  
“I would never do that, never you hear me. And whoever did do this to you can’t hurt you anymore and if they try to they will have to go through me first and there is no way that I will let them hurt you again.” I pulled him into a hug and just held him there while he sobbed against my chest. He slowly curled up against me, hands clenching my shirt as he silently sobbed. Neither of us moved until the bell rang, signaling the end of the day.


	4. Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve comes into the dumpster beat up and not talking, Bucky decides that he is going to take Steve home with him to make sure he is okay.

That night went by way too slowly. I worried the whole time that Steve would tell someone about my arm, or that he just wouldn’t show up to the dumpster that day at lunch. The truth is that everyday he was there before Steve was he worried about that. Bucky was too used to being abandoned, first by his parents, who turned him over to the government for experimentation, then by his friends, then by everyone that he knew. He didn’t want it to happen again. 

Thankfully after ten minutes of waiting Steve arrived, but it didn’t take long for me to realize something was wrong. He was being too quiet, it was quiet enough that I could hear his breath, it was shaking.  
“Steve are you okay?”   
I didn’t receive an answer. Something was really wrong, even on bad days he would still say a few words.  
“Steve?” I started to inch closer to Steve only to see him flinch away. “Am I the problem? I can go,” I started to get up to leave when Steve grabbed my arm and pulled me back down.   
“Stay.” Steve whispered. It was barely audible, but I heard it.  
I sat back down and pulled Steve into my lap, cradling him there. Now that Steve was out of the shadowed corner of the dumpster I could see the blood on his face, I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t noticed it before, it seemed like there was too much not to. His lip was sliced open and there was a large slash just above his left eye, the blood from the cut still dripping into it. I could tell that this would be a day that we would stay in the dumpster until school ended, so there was nothing that I could do about the people that had hurt Steve this time until next week, if Steve even let me do anything to them at all.   
“What happened?” Steve didn’t answer so I just continued to comfort him as best I could.

The bell rang, lunch was over.   
Another one rang, they would be going to gym class right now.   
The last bell rang and everyone rushed out of the school to go home for the weekend. But me and Steve were still in the dumpster, Steve silently crying in my arms.   
Neither of us moved for another half hour until I picked my head up from where it lay on top of Steve’s. “Hey, why don’t you come home with me this weekend, then I can get you all patched up and make sure you get some rest, how does that sound?”  
Steve responded with a small nod.  
I picked Steve up and carried him out of the dumpster. I then quickly stopped by our lockers to grab our backpacks before heading home, with Steve still cradled in my arms.


	5. New environments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve wakes up on Bucky's couch.

My apartment was only a few blocks away from the school, Natasha managed to set me up with it somehow when I left Russia. I walked the whole way there carrying Steve bridal style in my arms, which got us a lot of weird looks, but I didn’t care, my friend was hurt and I was helping him, it was what friends were supposed to do.   
By the time I reached the apartment Steve had passed out in my arms, I hoped that it wasn’t because of pain but I knew that it probably was. I shifted him over onto my metal arm, which could hold all of his weight on its own, so that I could get my keys. Once I had gotten the door unlocked and set set our backpacks down I carried Steve over to the couch and set him down gently.

I decided that I would make a pizza so that Steve could eat when he woke up. I had just put the pizza in the oven when I heard a rustling noise coming from the other room.   
“Buck?” Steve said in a raspy voice, it sounded like he had been screaming. At least he was finally awake.   
“Steve, are you okay, do you need anything?” I asked as I rushed out of the kitchen.   
“Bucky where am I?” He was starting to sound anxious, he seemed to not remember that I took him to my house.  
“Don’t worry, this is my house.” A look of realization hit Steve as soon as I said this. He tried to sit up so he could look around but immediately fell back down, wincing in pain. His injuries were worse than I thought.  
“You know, I thought that it would be bigger,” Even when he was in pain he was still making jokes.  
“Hey, it's not that small, and I live here alone s-”  
“Wait you live alone, how do you pay rent?” Steve cut me off with his concerned questioning.   
“Well my friend Natasha found the place for me, and she is pretty rich so most of it comes from her,” I paused for a moment as I realized just how much Nat had helped me when I came to America, I would have to pay her back one day. “And the rest of it I get from working at the convenience store down the street, it's not much but it really helps.” Steve gave me a sympathetic look, even though I wasn’t the one that needed to be worried about right now.  
“You could always come stay with me, it’s just my mom and I so we have plenty of extra room.”  
“No, I wouldn’t want your mom to have to be responsible for two people,” Steve looked like he was about to protest but I cut him off before he could speak, “that's my final answer, I don’t her to have to worry about me too.”  
“Fine but if you ever need any where to stay, my door is always open.”  
“And if I do need somewhere to stay I will go to you, but for now I am fine,” I grabbed a chair from the kitchen and pulled it up to the couch so I could get a closer look at his injuries, “ now back to what is important here, how are you feeling. Do you need anything, bandages, pain medicine, water?” I asked.  
“I think that I might have a broken rib, so something to wrap it with would be great, and also some water.”


	6. Not alone

“I think that I might have a broken rib, so something to wrap it with would be great, and also some water.” As soon as I said that I had a broken rib a look appeared on Bucky’s face the was something between sympathy and wanting to kill whoever had done this to me.  
“A BROKEN RIB?!?!” Bucky’s voice was so loud that I was afraid that the neighbors would hear. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”  
“I was in pain and shock, speaking was not my strong suit at that moment.” Despite my explanation he still looked like he wanted to kill me.  
“Who the fuck did this to you?” It seemed more like a threat than a question and Bucky pulled a knife out of who knows where as he asked it.  
“It was just a few HYDRA kids, and the knife really isn’t necessary,” Bucky didn’t put it away. “Buck come one, please, you don’t need to fight anyone for me.” He finally put the knife away, which had been hidden in a holster that was seamlessly built into the side of his boot. I was impressed and scared at the same time, how many other weapons was Bucky hiding on him.  
“Fine, but you can’t let people do this to you anymore, I don’t want you to get hurt any worse than you already are.” His face serious and his eyes were full of worry, Bucky cared about me. Someone finally cared about me, I realized, I wasn’t alone anymore.  
“Okay, I’ll try to stay out of fights,” Bucky seemed satisfied and turned to leave, but before he did I said one more thing. “Thank you Bucky, for being my friend, and for bringing me here, I would have been sitting in that dumpster curled up in a ball all weekend if it weren’t for you.” Bucky just smiled before going to get the pizza out of the oven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the short chapter, I have been really busy and haven't had much time to write.


	7. Mornings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something surprising happens while Bucky is 'asleep'.

After we finished eating the pizza, which Steve said was the best pizza that he had ever had, Steve and I watched movies for the rest of the night.  
Halfway through Aladdin I noticed that Steve was asleep, so I paused the movie and carried Steve to my room. I pulled back the covers and put Steve under them then went to get a blanket for myself.   
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep on the couch so I decided that I would just sleep above the covers on my bed. I figured that my bed was big enough for both of us, so I climbed over Steve and lied down against the wall, Steve was fast asleep on the other side of the bed. I soon drifted off to sleep, dreaming of my life before all the torture, and the murder, and the metal arm. 

I woke up in the middle of the night with someone's arms wrapped around me. For a moment I panicked, before my memories flooded back to me, it was just Steve. But still, Steve had somehow gotten me under the covers and was now pressed against me with his arms wrapped around my waist and his head nuzzled into my neck. I wasn’t sure what to do, should I move and risk waking up Steve or just go back to sleep and wait for the morning, sleep ended up winning as it dragged me back down.

Light streamed through the window, waking me up. I opened my eyes to see that the whole Steve thing hadn’t been a dream, his arms were actually wrapped around me. The only difference this time is that we were facing each other, I must have moved again while I was asleep. I had no idea what he would do when Steve woke up so I just closed my and tried to steady my breathing, pretending to be asleep.  
Steve woke up a few minutes later.  
“Buck,” he said confusion lacing his tired voice. “Are you awake?”  
I didn’t answer, I wanted to see what he would do.  
“I guess not,” Steve paused for a moment and I started to worry that he realized what happened and hated me now. “That’s too bad, I kind of wanted pancakes, and I bet yours are the best. I can wait though.” Steve moved so he could play with my hair. It felt nice, no one had played with my hair in years, I liked it.  
Steve didn’t speak for a few minutes, he just continued to play with my hair. We sat there in peace and I wondered if I should actually wake up now, the thought of pancakes were making me hungry.  
“You know you’re cute when you’re asleep, oh god, did I just say that, I didn’t think that I said that out loud.” Steve sighed loudly before continuing, “Everything should be fine, you are asleep. But if you did hear that please don’t kill me, and please don’t kill me for this either.” Steve said before placing a soft kiss on my forehead.  
The kiss surprised me, but I didn’t react. Steve had just kissed me, and I definitely wasn’t going to kill him for it.

After a few minutes Steve dropped his hand from my hair and went silent, I decided that it was time to ‘wake up’. I shifted around a bit so it seemed like I was actually waking up before slowly opening my eyes and looking at Steve.  
“Morning Stevie.”


	8. The market

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Bucky go to the market.

Bucky ended up making pancakes after I asked him to about ten times. Despite his protest, Bucky was smiling the whole time he made the pancakes, which were the best pancakes that I had ever had.  
“Hey,” I said as Bucky was putting away the syrup. “I know that I probably won’t be able to do much because of my broken rib, but do you want to maybe, uh, want to go to the market downtown. I heard that there is a stall that has handmade gloves, I thought that you could pick out a new one for your hand, the one you have looks like it has been through a lot. I would pay for it, of course, but I wanted you to pick it out.”  
Bucky just stared at me, I was afraid that he hated my idea, but then he smiled. “I would love that, I do need a new glove,” He took the glove off of his left hand and held it up, showing the multiple rips that he had sewn closed.  
“Great let's go then,” I jumped out of my chair and collapsed as pain shot through my chest.  
“Steve! Are you okay?” Bucky ran over and helped me to my feet, being extra careful to make sure I didn’t get anymore hurt.  
“Yeah, I’m fine,” It was a lie, but I didn’t want to worry Bucky anymore. “Let’s just go to the market.”

We took the bus downtown, there weren’t a lot of people at the market, so we didn’t have any trouble finding the glove stall. It was run by a nice old lady who was eager to help us find the perfect glove.  
After about ten minutes Bucky ended up choosing a black leather glove with a soft lining. Once we were away from the tent, Bucky checked around for people, and seeing none he replaced his beat up glove with the brand new one. It fit perfectly.

We spent the rest of the day wondering the market. Mostly it was just us, but at one point a few people form our school who were there saw us and they shouted something about the school weirdos going on a date, but we weren’t bothered by it. We ended up getting some homemade ice cream and a bag of plums before leaving.

Once we got back to the apartment Bucky, with his seemingly unlimited cooking skills, made some kind of plum dish that he put the ice cream on top of. We had that instead of dinner.  
The rest of the night was spent sitting on the couch, telling funny stories about our childhoods. It was fun, but half the time I could only think about this morning. I had kissed Bucky, it was only on the forehead, but it was still a kiss. I was really starting to like Bucky, as more than just a friend, but I had no idea how to tell him that. He was looking at me with a huge smile on his face, obviously waiting for me to tell a story. So I did, pushing away the worry about how to tell Bucky that I liked him. That was an issue for tomorrow.


	9. The Cafe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buck and Steve go to a cafe for lunch

Steve was really cute when he was sleeping, but I had to wake him up, there was no way he was sleeping the whole day. It was the last day of the weekend and I had a surprise for him. “Steve, get up,” I said, but he didn’t respond. “Steeeeeve.” This woke him.  
“What.” He sounded annoyed that I woke him up.  
“Get dressed, we’re going somewhere.”  
“Where?”  
“That’s a surprise.” I sprang out of the bed and grabbed a nice shirt and jeans, then ran to the bathroom to change.  
I checked my outfit in the mirror one last time. I was wearing a blue button up with jeans and my hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Satisfied with my outfit I stepped out of the bathroom to find Steve sitting on my bed, wearing his jeans and one of my shirts that I gave him. He looked amazing.  
“C’mon, lets go.” I grabbed his hand and my wallet and dragged him out of the apartment.  
I lead Steve to a small cafe down the road from my apartment that I had saved a table at. He gave me a confused look as I walked to a small booth at the back, I just told him to sit down while I went to get our food.  
I came back a few minutes later with two milkshakes along with a plate of fries and two sandwiches. I set them down in front of a confused and slightly annoyed Steve.  
“What is happening?”  
“Lunch,” I said sitting down.  
“But we just woke up,” He grabbed a fry anyway.  
“We woke up at 11 Steve, we can eat lunch.”  
“Okay fine,” He laughed. “But why are we really here, I know you can cook, and that you like to.”  
“Uh,” I froze. I planned this so I could tell Steve that I liked him, I thought it would be easy, but now that I was backed into a corner, I couldn’t seem to do it. But I had to say something now. “I-I wanted to take you somewhere nice, because I, uh, like you.” I looked down, afraid to look at Steve’s face, afraid that he would hate me.  
“I’m glad you do, because I like you too.”  
But when Steve reached out and took my hand I realized that I didn’t need to worry.


	10. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunch in the dumpster

The next day went mostly as normal, but when lunch came and I went to the dumpster Bucky was waiting there with take out from the Chinese place down the road from the school. I jumped in and scooted over to sit next to Bucky.  
“I hope you like it,” He said  
“I love it,” I replied.  
We spent the rest of lunch eating and talking and ignored the end of lunch bell, continuing to talk. We talked about everything now. Bucky told me about his past in Russia and I talked about living here and going to this school. We were both there for each other when the subject got tough to talk about, comforting the other when it was needed. At one point Bucky ended up calling Natasha who interrogated me, making Bucky blush in embarrassment, but she seemed nice and promised to come visit us one day.  
School was almost over but neither of us wanted to leave the dumpster. Knowing we had to I decided to do something that I had never done before. “Hey Bucky,” I leaned in closer to him.” I was wondering if I could maybe kiss you.”  
Instead of a verbal reply he pulled my face closer to his and closed the gap. His lips were warm and soft. I melted into the kiss and leaned against him.  
The last bell rang and the kiss was over, too soon.  
“That was amazing,” whispered Bucky.  
“Yeah, it really was, we should do it again sometime.” He nodded.  
We got out of the dumpster, not caring to clean up the trash, it was a dumpster after all. Bucky and I said our goodbyes and parted ways, promising to meet in the same spot the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. We had done this everyday for months, but now it seemed to matter more, because we seemed to care more. We knew in that moment that no matter what happened we would be there for each other, and were were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be writing a sequel to this that will be about Steve and Bucky after they graduate. It might take a while though.


End file.
